Crimson Rosella Platycercus elegans
Crimson Rosella, Wye Valley, Victoria, Australia, February 2006 - click for larger image Australia

The Crimson Rosella is distributed in Australia in the east and south-east but excluding Tasmania. It is found in forests and woodlands as well as scrublands and gardens.

Crimson Rosella, Kangaroo Island, SA, Australia, March 2006 - click for larger image It feeds mainly on seeds but also eats blossoms and fruits of trees and bushes as well as orchard fruits.

There is a wide variety of plumages and I will deal with one main sub-species, Yellow Rosella P. e. flaveolus on a separate page. Here you can see an adult P. e. elegans in photo 1, an immature of this sub-species in photo 4 and a sub-adult still showing a bit of green in photo 3.

Crimson Rosella, Murramarang N. P., NSW, Australia, February 2006 - click for larger image Photo 2, taken on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, shows an adult of the race P.e. melanoptera which is a darker red with narrower red edgings so generally has more black on the back. I must admit that I think the difference is quite a subtle one. The difference is more pronounced when compared with the race P. e. nigrescens of north-east Queensland, seen in photos 5 and 6, which is darker as well as smaller that the other races.
Immature Crimson Rosella, Wye Valley, Victoria, Australia, February 2006 - click for larger image The first bird that I encountered was this immature bird on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. I couldn't work out what it was - another species new to science perhaps - until I got back to my field guide and discovered that it was a Crimson Rosella. It's just so very different from the adult.
Crimson Rosella, Paluma, Queensland, Australia, December 2010 - click for larger image
Crimson Rosella, Paluma, Queensland, Australia, December 2010 - click for larger image
Crimson Rosella, Mount Lofty, South Australia, September 2013 - click for larger image Photos 7 and 8 were taken at Mount Lofty near Adelaide, South Australia. Some authorities treat this as a separate species, Adelaide Rosella P. adelaidae while others treat it as a sub-species of Crimson Rosella P. elegans adelaidae while still others treat it as an intergrade between P. elegans subadelaidae and P. e. fleurieuensis.
Crimson Rosella, Mount Lofty, South Australia, September 2013 - click for larger image
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